By George Georgakopoulos

A disastrous night for Olympiakos on Friday where it had won the Euroleague trophy a few months ago, saw the European champion suffer a 26-point loss to Anadolu Efes in Istanbul.

Besides the demoralizing factor that such a defeat entails, especially more so since it has come three days before the league derby with Panathinaikos, it also means that should Olympiakos and Efes end up level on points, the Turks will have the upper hand unless the Greeks beat them by 27 in Piraeus.

The Reds had a particularly poor first period that had Efes lead 30-13 after the first 10 minutes during which they made five out of five three-pointers. The rest of the first half was hardly better for the visitors who trailed 54-32 at half-time.

Olympiakos did improve in the third period and went on to cut its deficit to nine points (57-48), but that was as far as it could go on the night.

Led by an amazing Jordan Farmar – the US point guard scored 25 points – Efes regained its huge lead toward the end as the Greeks gave up trying with the league derby coming up.

Vassilis Spanoulis was the top scorer for Olympiakos with 14 points. His coach, Giorgos Bartzokas admitted later that “we did not even exist in the court in the first period.”